Broken Wax: Madvillian “Madvillainy”
For years, the only music I listened to was Wu-Tang. It was Wu-Tang day and night (no Kid Cudi) for me. One day, I decided I needed to branch out and listen to other rap groups/rappers to get a better understanding of hip hop in general. So one of the things I did was get the discographies of whomever they collaborated with.
I’m not sure what year was this but Ghostface Killah’s “Fishscale” was still in development. I was reading on Wu Corp that one of the featured producers would be MF DOOM and a collaborative album was being made between them. Since Ghostface Killah is my favorite rapper, I had to find out more about this MF DOOM guy.
I did a couple Google searches and that really didn’t help me at all. I was big on message boards at the moment so I would search his name in those. Everyone pretty much agreed DOOM was dope but that wasn’t enough to convince me. I needed to hear some material. I asked on Wu Corp what was his best album was and the answer I received was “Madvillainy”, his collaboration album with Madlib. DOOM didn’t do any beats but he did do the rapping which was good enough for moi.
I was working so I got my $20 together and after school ended I went and purchased “Madvilliany”. I didn’t really know what to expect since I’ve never heard MF DOOM or Madlib music at the time. I put the cd inside of my cd player and my life was forever changed on the way home.
46 minutes of obscure loops and random yet meaningful rhymes. Everything on this album just fit so perfectly. I can throw this album on and get lost into its weird groove. I wanted my music to sound like this and have this feel. DOOM didn’t rap like any rapper I’ve heard before. His flow sounded like he had tourretes syndrome except it made sense and he wasn’t yelling. A calm tourrettes with a slight drunken twist to be exact. Madlib keeps it simple with a music background of random loops.
This cd made me purchase my first drum machine. I was reading Scratch Magazine at the time and Madlib had an interview inside of the Eminem issue. He said that he used a Roland Sp 606 to create the whole album. I was so used to reading about MPC’s and I didn’t have MPC money so I figured if he could make “Madvillainy” on it, I could do some serious damage with it. A couple weeks later, I got my Sp 505 because they didn’t have a 606.
When I started making beats on my 505, I looped everything. I got good practice, I’d hook my shit up to the tv (I read MF DOOM did that in that Madlib interview I was talking about). I would attempted to find some of the samples on “Madvilliany” to study how Madlib looped them. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find them but a couple years later someone compiled all of them and leaked them to the internet.
Even now I go back and revisit this album because it sounds like just that, an album. Every song leads into the next one. The chemistry among both parties is priceless. I wish more people would stick with one producer for an album. A lot of albums sounding like compilations and not albums. “Madvillainy” is one of the best albums ever created.
“…one of the best albums ever created.” Agreed!
Nikavelli Agrees!